1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a selective call radio receiver, and more particularly to a selective call radio receiver which can display a message using a mail drop function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a selective call radio system is known in which a message is inputted using a telephone and transmitted to a selective call radio receiver. In the selective call radio system, the inputted message is sent from the telephone through a telephone line to a base station. Then, the message is transmitted to the selective call radio receiver using electromagnetic wave from the base station. The message is received by the selective call radio receiver and displayed on a display unit.
In such a recent selective call radio receiver, a built-in memory capacity is increased and a display function is enriched. Accordingly, the selective call radio receiver can receive and display a text message composed of alphanumeric letters, Kana letters and Kanji letters in addition to display of destination telephone numbers.
Also, the service of the selective call radio system has been widened to new service in which various data such as stock market information and weather forecast information are transmitted for a predetermined time, in addition to the above conventional service such as the transfer of an individual message. The selective call radio receiver has the so-called mail drop function to receive such new service. Hereinafter, massages such as stock market information and weather forecast information which are transmitted for a predetermined time are called xe2x80x9cmail drop messagesxe2x80x9d.
In the mail drop function, a mail drop message and a mail drop selective call number allocated to the mail drop message are received from a base station. The received mail drop message is overwritten in a memory area of the selective call radio receiver which corresponds to the received mail drop selective call number. According to the mail drop function, the latest mail drop message is always stored in the memory area which corresponds to the mail drop selective call number. The user can always see the latest mail drop message.
There is a case that a mail drop message is sent, when the user of the selective call radio receiver is in the place such as inside of a tunnel and underground in which electromagnetic wave can not be received. In such a case, the mail drop message stored in the selective call radio receiver cannot be received and updated to the latest message.
Also, in the mail drop function in the conventional selective call radio receiver, the stored mail drop message is merely displayed. Instead, the mail drop message is displayed together with the time at which the mail drop message has been received. Therefore, whether the displayed mail drop message is new or old can not be determined so that the user would feel complicated.
By the way, a display pager is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 3-277025). In this reference, a timer starts to count time each time a message to the display pager is received, and the timer is stopped when the message is displayed on a display unit. When a previously set time lapses without the display of the message, a time-out signal is outputted from the timer. An alarm is generated in response to the time-out signal, and the message is also displayed on the display unit in response to the time-out signal.
However, in the display pager, the user is not possible to know whether or not the displayed message is a new message or an old message, when stored messages are read out and displayed.
Besides, a character message paging system is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 2-250540). In this reference, character messages are inputted from subscriber terminals and stored with serial numbers in a message storage unit of a paging switch for every destination pager. A count value indicating the number of character messages stored in the message storage unit is sent to a transmission unit for every predetermined time. A user of a pager requests retransmission unit to retransmit the character messages. The pager compares the number of received character messages and the counter value transmitted from the paging switch for every predetermined time and output an alarm when it is determined that the number of received character messages is not coincident with the counter value.
Also, a message pager with a call code setting key is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 2-266620). In this reference, a pager is composed of a data receiving section, an input section, a storage section, a comparing section, a reception data storage section, a display section, a buzzer, and a control section. The data receiving section receives data transmitted through a radio data link. A call code, a priority level and a buzzer driving data are inputted from the input section. The storage section stores data from the input section. The comparing section compares the call code of received data by the receiving section and the call code stored in the storage section. The reception data storage section stores a reception data in correspondence to the call code of the reception data, and the display section displays the reception data. The control section reads out from the buzzer drive data and the priority level from the storage section, and performs one of the storage of the reception data into the reception data storage section and display of the reception data on the display section in accordance with the priority level. Also, the control section drives the buzzer in accordance with the buzzer drive data.
Also, a selective call radio receiver with a display function is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 3-273716). In this reference, the selective call radio receiver has a plurality of call numbers peculiar to the receiver. The selective call radio receiver has a function in which the receiver is automatically controlled such that character display data transmitted from a base station in accordance with given regulation are held in accordance with the regulation, when being called using the call numbers more than a predetermined number. Also, the selective call radio receiver has a function to perform a call originating operation in addition to the storage of the character display data. Further, the selective call radio receiver has a function to display the character display data.
Also, a selective call radio receiver is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 4-227345). In this reference, the selective call radio receiver has a first peculiar call number (a first address) for a message data and a second peculiar call number (a second address) for a time data. A radio section is supplied with power for a time for which a data for the peculiar call number is received. The time data is received only when a second call flag is set to xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d. Thus, when the time data is not necessary, the time data is not received, resulting in saving of power consumption.
The present invention is accomplished to solve the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a selective call radio receiver, in which it is possible to distinct whether a displayed mail drop message is new or old.
Also, another object of the present invention is to provide a selective call radio receiver, in which it is possible to distinct a mail drop message that a predetermined time has elapsed after the mail drop message is received.
In order to achieve an aspect of the present invention, a selective call radio apparatus includes an operation unit, a display unit, and a message storage unit for storing mail drop messages for respective mail drop selective call numbers. A control unit selects one of the mail drop selective call numbers through an operation of the operation unit, and reads out one of the mail drop messages corresponding to the specified mail drop selective call number from the message storage unit. Also, the control unit controls the display unit to display the read mail drop message based on an elapsed time from reception of the mail drop message.
The control unit may compare a present time and a reception time of the mail drop message, and may control the display unit to display the mail drop message corresponding to the specified mail drop selective call number based on the comparing result. In this case, the control unit stores the mail drop message in the message storage unit together with the reception time.
Also, the control unit may refer to a flag for the mail drop message. The flag indicates whether a predetermined time has elapsed after the mail drop message is received. The control unit may control the display unit to display the mail drop message corresponding to the specified mail drop selective call number based on the referring result. In this case, the control unit stores the mail drop message in the message storage unit together with the flag. The control unit initializes the flag when storing the mail drop message in the message storage unit, and sets the flag when the predetermined time has elapsed after the mail drop message is received. In this case, the selective call radio apparatus may further include a timer counting a time after the reception of the mail drop message.
The control unit may control the display unit to display the mail drop message corresponding to the specified mail drop selective call number in a predetermined display attribute when a predetermined time has elapsed after the reception of the mail drop message. In this case, the predetermined display attribute is a color inversion or addition of a special symbol. Also, the predetermined time may be variable.
In order to achieve another aspect of the present invention, a method of displaying a message, includes the steps of:
specifying one of mail drop selective call numbers; and
displaying a mail drop message corresponding to the specified mail drop selective call number based on an elapsed time from reception of the mail drop message.